Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Ethics charges, the lowest form of NJ politics played out on the grand stage of the Soprano State is the latest riff in two of the Mile Square City's feuding public education institutions.

No one is talking on the record about the latest turn of musical chairs in the legal battle between the Hoboken BoE and the HoLa charter school but that doesn't mean it's not a public feud (or public information).

Ethics allegations likely involve three current and former members of the BoE district: Tom Kleupfel, Jennifer Evans and former BoE trustee Leon Gold. Those behind the sight unseen charges are connected to if not competing administrators at HoLA. The two sides have been embroiled in a years long legal battle over the charter school's expansion to seventh and eighth grade.

The Hoboken BoE considered the expansion encroachment and threw a red legal flag. Predictions of victory have fallen fallow as the proceedings have dragged on for years with no positive result. HoLa bruised but winning with its status quo expansion is retaliating for the bloodletting. Legal bills are into six figures all around.

Hoboken suffers from no dearth of public and private schools; it's more like a potpourri of options and with an exploding school age population, the education institutions are doing good business.

The HoLa expansion approved by the State of NJ back in March 2015 is the epicenter of the years long fight with mounting legal bills and bad blood flowing on all sides. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the BoE school district is thought underwritten by the BoE commissioners and spurred ethics charges in retaliation by HoLa forces.

Ethics allegations, legal bills and arguments on appointed lawyers covering legal bills for the BoE trustees are all part and parcel of the less than public debate. The weekend fish wrap mentions another unrelated case. It will probably require an OPRA request before sufficient details come to light.

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Last night, the unheralded but very unopposed for reelection Freeholder, one Anthony "Stick" Romano attempted to celebrate his line of potential Democratic Committee candidates in the upcoming June primary at the downtown restaurant Biggies.

The event turned out to be less committee and more a sequel to Invasion of the Body Snatchers as not one but two Hoboken City Council members crashed the proceedings. Did the event have a happy ending like say the less scary and entertaining movie Wedding Crashers? Sure, if you consider sabotage a successful end to a shotgun wedding.

Oh, the council members teaming up in a tag team duo of party pile drivers punking Romano were Ravi Bhalla and Tiffanie Fisher. They played their parts as gate crashers to perfection for the sequel but the cast is all Hoboken. Perhaps Will Farrell won't mind.

A newer member or less knowledgeable member of the public in attendance in the ways of Hoboken electioneering had a more naive idea of an election day assault asking if anyone had an organized plan to sign up Vote-by-Mail applicants. Stick Romano was said to be very entertained at the notion.

Now a horse will shaddup his face or be back later with more gristy chewables. We'll decide later.

A horse would highlight the deception but feels the Hudson Reporter is due an apology. After all, MSV never knew the responsibility of editors to perpetuate Fake News. Well as the saying goes, we've come a long way.

One day, the Hudson Reporter editors and publishers might work their way up the ladder to the top of their profession and get a gig at CNN, the leader in Fake News. For now, this horse hears another bomb is about to drop WikiLeak style on the a fake news leader later this week. It's going to be de-lish.

Grist for the Mill is MSV's rumor column. Got a tasty carrot for Da Horsey? Send it to smartyjones@me.com. All email is kept confidential and is protected by Da Horsey's proven Reporter Privilege upheld under the NJ Shield Law in Hudson County Superior Court. In farm animals we trust.